Scottish Government in Breach of the Law on Public Appointments to the Scottish Land Commision

On 14 August 2026, Emily Johns was appointed as a member of the Cairngorms National Park Authority to serve a four year term. The appointment was made under the relevant legislation governing Ministerial appointments in order to fill a vacancy created by an existing member coming to the end of their term of office in October 2026.

If you have nothing better to do with your time you can read all about this and other appointments here.

Meantime, at a meeting of the Board of the Scottish Land Commission on 5 March 2026, one of the Commissioners, Calum Macleod, announced his intention to stand down from the Commission. The minutes read as follows;

At the start of the meeting Calum MacLeod notified the board of his intention to stand down from his role as a Land Commissioner due to changes in his other time commitments. He confirmed he has written to the Cabinet Secretary giving notice and will step down from the board on 31st May. The Chair and colleagues thanked Calum for his significant contribution to the board, noting that Calum will remain active as a board member in the meantime including the May meeting. He also noted that sponsor team will take forward arrangements for a new appointment to the board and we will keep the board informed of the expected timeline, however a period with a vacancy is to be expected.

This created a vacancy which, it is noted, will be filled in due course (the sponsor team is the civil servants team in the Scottish Government responsible for overseeing and liaising with the SLC on behalf of Ministers).

So far, so normal.

However, in the Quarterly report from the SLC Chief Executive presented at the Board Meeting on 6 August 2026, the following was noted;

The Cabinet Secretary has taken the decision not to recruit to the Land Commissioner vacancy created by Calum MacLeod stepping down, in the context of public service reform. This means the number of Land Commissioners will reduce from five to four.

It appears that the vacancy will not in fact be filled and that the reason for this is “public sector reform”. What is curious about this decision is that the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs (Gillian Martin) does not have the legal authority to make this decision.

Section 4 of the Land Reform Act (Scotland) Act 2016 reads as follows;

(1) The Scottish Land Commission (in Gaelic, Coimisean Fearainn na h-Alba) is established by this section.
(2) In this Act, it is referred to as “the Commission”.
(3) The Commission is a body corporate.
(4) The Commission is to consist of the following members—
(a) five Land Commissioners, and
(b) the Tenant Farming Commissioner.
(5) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations amend subsection (4)(a) so as to alter the number of Land Commissioners
(6) ……

By law the SLC must have five members plus the Tenant Farming Commissioner. The Commission currently has only four and the Cabinet Secretary has decided that it will remain at four.

However, she can only make this decision if she introduces regulations under subsection (5) to alter the number from 5 to 4. No such regulations have been made.

The Scottish Land Commission thus has less members than by law it should have. It should also be noted that with the resignation of Calum MacLeod, it now has no Commissioner with detailed knowledge of community landownership.

Before writing this blog I thought I should contact the Scottish Government to seek an explanation. I phoned the media office and was told that I would receive a statement by today. Yesterday, however, the media team told me that because I was a blogger and not a journalist, my request was going to be treated as a “normal public inquiry” and that the request would be “passed to the relevant policy area to respond to me directly along with your requested Friday deadline”.

Today, I received an email informing me that this would be treated as a Freedom of Information request to be dealt with in line with statutory timescales (20 days).

I know I am not a journalist but a polite request for a statement to include in a story to be published on a blog such as this appears to me to be the kind of request that the Scottish government should welcome.

No doubt, a respond will be forthcoming in 20 days time.

Meantime, I look forward to seeing whether any amending regulations are published. They will be dealt with under the negative procedure which means they will become law without a vote after 40 days unless an MSP lodges a motion to annul. Only if such motion is lodged will the proposal be subject to any scrutiny and debate.

I will be watching carefully. I do not think that membership of the Commission should be reduced to four and if this is proposed, the Parliament should have the opportunity to debate the matter.